I am making my living doing part-time coding (still doing my degree) for the last 2 years, was unemployed for only about 3 months. I am doing PHP and AngularJS.

I am making my living doing part-time coding (still doing my degree) for the last 2 years, was unemployed for only about 3 months. I am doing PHP and AngularJS. It's really all about the people you know. I got the best gigs just by asking people (normally other developers) I know if they know someone who needs a developer. So, yes, it's all about networking but not the numbers but quality of connection. No one, who talked to you for 10mins, will vouch for you, really. I've tried elance a bit, and getting the first gig there looks like a game of numbers. If you apply for many jobs, sooner or later you will get one... But checking new postings, writing decent cover letter is time and mental energy consuming. I gave up there. I don't know, maybe it's worth the hassle getting the first one. If you try to make a living doing part time, the key is 1) high enough pay rate 2) be strict about the payments. I used to have a rather low rate and was very trusting (e.g. if the payment is late by 3-4 weeks I still trusted because I 'felt' that he is trustworthy). I ended up in the situation when I didn't have what to eat for a few weeks, while I was getting 'I really made the payment' BS, and 0 motivation and energy to do anything. But now I am happy that it happened, I moved on, and got much much better gigs and 1.5-2 times higher pay rate and payments always on time :) AMA!